Happiness
by Ark Navy
Summary: Colette had loved fairy-tales as a girl, but she knew they were never really real. After searching for exspheres with Lloyd, she quickly settled down with her brown-eyed lover, and found that, so long as you're happy, anything can end happily ever after.


_Happiness_

-----

Colette had never really given much of a thought to life long after their extended Journey of Regeneration. It was too far off, and what was the use of actively thinking about it? Besides, living in the day, for the moment, was far easier a task.

Though she had to admit, she could be amused by the menial things, and she was good at them, too. So it all worked out. She often found herself surprised at how things always seemed to work out for the better in the end.

Occasionally, howling streaks would pass through the tiny kitchen in which she preoccupied herself with fixing lunch. Some were brown, others were golden-blonde. Most had those big brown eyes she adored, but a chosen few somehow escaped with blue eyes not much different than her own. Regardless of their differences, they were always running around like a crazy animals, barking out play commands, tackling each other, and of course occasionally coming back in to whine about how one had bitten the other and who started it and everything else.

All seven of them—Colette, her faithful brown-eyed partner, and their five kids—packed into one flat on the outskirts of Iselia. And though they found it hard to scrape by enough money week-to-week to feed their pack of yapping kids, she couldn't be happier.

After more or less completing Lloyd's journey of ridding the world of exspheres, the two had settled down immediately—as if no one had seen that coming. With five in a only a few short years, she was hailed as a superwoman by about every other housewife in Iselia. She just laughed, claiming herself unworthy of the praise.

"It just kinda… happened! And we're happy." She always told them.

…Granted, their litter was adopted, as overpopulation of the new one planet always hung in the back of her mind. After all, almost all of her friends had been adopted in some manner—Genis practically by Raine, and the both of them by the town of Iselia; Sheena by chief Igaguri; Zelos more or less by his butler, Sebastian; and, of course, Lloyd by Dirk.

They were no different to her than her own would have been. Max was their oldest at the age of five, followed by the rambunctious duo of Molly and Maggie at four and a half, then shy and sweet Bailey at four, and their youngest, but most talkative, Jack at two.

As she sliced the meat for their lunches, she looked out the kitchen window. She happily set the knife down and ran outside at the sight of Lloyd. She managed to catch him on his way into the village, shouting, "Lloyd! You're back!"

She captured him in a great big hug, and he returned it, laughing, "I haven't been gone for that long!"

She shook her head, countering, "Long enough for Jack to start crying about it every so often."

"Wow, I'll have to start cutting my trips shorter."

"I was just making some lunch if you're hungry," Colette told him.

Lloyd beamed, "That'd be awesome! I've missed your cooking."

She rolled her eyes, leading him back. "It's not much…" she trailed off. Before she could say anything more, Noishe turned the corner, leading the stampede of the five overjoyed kids towards Lloyd. "Looks like they're happy to see you!" she giggled.

After their mini reunion, Colette led the seven into the kitchen where they enjoyed beef sandwiches and caught up. Of course, not everything went smoothly, as Max began roughhousing with Jack after the younger had tried stealing a bite of his food. Colette chastised them both and kenneled them in their rooms for bad behavior. Max just growled unintelligibly while Jack cried throughout the entire 'time-out'.

The afternoon sun seemed to quickly fade into the evening sunset, and with the good house-guest manners imparted to him by his father—a job to which his adoptive father had turned a blind eye—Lloyd said his good-byes and left the happy couple with their five children. All of whom whined uncontrollably at his departure… and had forgotten who Lloyd was by the time he had left Iselia and left to go frolic out in the meadow.

Colette sighed contently as she looked into her companion's big brown eyes. He kissed her and she scratched him behind his ear, gazing out into the sunset painted field where their four-legged, furry children were at play.

"I love you too, Noishe."

_And they lived happily ever after_

(...Talk about a furry-tail ending.)_  
_


End file.
